Stand Watie

Stand Watie (12 December 1806-9 September 1871) was a leader of the Cherokee nation and a Brigadier-General in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, the only Native American general to fight in the war. On 23 June 1865, he became the last Confederate general to surrender to the Union during the war.

Biography
Stand Watie as born in Oothcaloga (now known as Calhoun), Georgia in 1806, the son of a Cherokee father and a mother of patrilineal white descent and matrilineal Cherokee descent; he was the younger brother of Elias Boudinot. His family was raised ain the Protestant faith, and he wrote articles for his brother's Cherokee Phoenix newspaper; in 1835, Watie and his family were forced to move to the Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma as the result of the "Trail of Tears" forced relocation of the Cherokee people. He took part in the post-Indian Removal Act violence of the 1840s, murdering the killers of his brother, and he came to own a plantation on Spavinaw Creek. From 1845 to 1861, he was a member of the Cherokee Council, serving as speaker from 1857 to 1859.

When the American Civil War broke out, Stand Watie organized a cavalry regiment for the Confederate States Army, siding with the secessionist Confederate States of America due to his ownership of slaves. He led mounted cavalry during clashes with pro-Union Creek, Seminole, and other Native American tribes in Oklahoma, and he covered the Confederate retreat from the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas in 1862. On 10 May 1864, he was promoted to Brigadier-General, fighting in more battles west of the Mississippi River than any other unit; he fought against the Union in Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Texas. Watie was given command of the Indian Division of Indian Territory in February 1865 near the end of the war, and he was forced to surrender to the Union at Doaksville in the Choctaw territory on 23 June 1865, the last Confederate general to surrender during the war. After the war, he remained a tribal leader, and he died in Delaware County, Oklahoma in 1871 at the age of 64.